What is Katonah

What is Katonah?

And Katona yoga has really, expanded, recently in the yoga world. Katona practice is based on really a combination of so many different types of practices and modality So katona yoga is really based on traditional hata yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, Daoism. There are Hinduism principles, principles of traditional ashtanga yoga that are infused in the practice. And so it really is this amalgamation of all of these incredible things. In Katona yoga, we really don't talk about the muscles in the same way that we would in maybe a more traditional Ashtanga based kind of practice.

Right? Since Katona is really foundationally based off of DAOism. And DAOism, we believe that energy moves very freely through the bones, through the joints. And so in the katona practice, We talk a lot about the joints. We talk a lot about the bones.

And also, actually, we talk about the organs and the energetics of the organs. Very much if you were to talk to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, they would also talk a lot about the organs. And so in a traditional sort of Katona class, we're really talking about moving what we would say as currency through the body. We would cue the bones. We would cue to the joints, right, rather than saying, roll your thigh out or roll your thigh in, bring your knees in, We're really talking more about joint space and structural space like the bones.

How does it inform your teaching and your practice?

Are we moving currency through the body? If I can see some currency moving through the body, it's a very different shape than if my students are throwing themselves into a pose. Right? Or hyper extending or trying really hard to get somewhere. Right? It there's a difference between moving currency through the body and just putting yourself into a pose, and one could say there's more intentionality behind that. But because of my ketone experience in my own body and in my own practice, I'm able to really look at other bodies and really see what kind of currency is moving. Right, through the practice. And how does this shape look geometrically? And how can we add more volume and more dimension into the shape. And usually, I find that students are quite inspired to feel, oh my gosh, have more space.

I have more room to blossom and to grow. And all of that really comes from queuing to the energetic to the currency, to the joint space, right, more than anything else.

What can I expect from movement practices?

And we come out of the dog to look at somebody else's dog and look and see what's happening. So it's very much this workshop element, when you take a traditional Katona class, it's very workshop. You're always learning something And the Warrior series, when we do the Warrior series, is incredibly challenging. And so I always tell someone when it's their 1st traditional Katona class, be prepared for difficulty. Be prepared to hold poses for a really long time and expand expand your mind.

Get out of that first nature into your second nature so that you sort of agitate and irritate yourself so that we can go into a new edge into a new dimension and and create our own technique. It's it's really quite powerful.

What might a practice bring up for me?

Even if the same thing is hurting us sometimes. And so the Katona practice puts you in these shapes that take you out of your first nature, you're very uncomfortable, and it can bring up a lot of stuff. It can bring up a lot of emotions. It can bring up a lot of doubts. It can bring up sometimes a little bit of anger Oh, I wanna get into this post so bad.

I want my hand to be here, or I want this post to happen. And instead, you learn how to actually make yourself fit into the shape by really getting out of that first nature, out of those habits, and retraining yourself to build good technique, to build the good technique so that every time you come into the shape, you know exactly how to get into it because you've done it over and over again. Right? Great nature. Nature is so intelligent because it shows us patterns. Right? And our bodies have patterns.

And so when we start to teach ourselves in the katona practice, we start to build these techniques. We begin to see the patterns in ourselves, how the the knee fits into the armpit, and how when I fit the knee into the armpit, my hips, my sacrum open up, and I'm able to actually fold into myself. My body is able to actually blossom into the shape. Now getting there is a journey and the journey is definitely worth, right, the end result.

Who is Katonah for?

It's exciting. Right? Sometimes the advanced yoga practitioner who comes into a katona yoga class has all of these habits from their first nature that have served them really, really well, right, in whatever they're practicing. But then when we start to get out of that first nature and move into second nature, it's very uncomfortable. And so they I find that that seasoned practitioners have a more difficult time getting into the katona practice, but really the katona practice is truly for every We have to be willing to really look at that first nature and move into our second nature. Right?

And the Katona practice is great for teachers because it is really more of a workshop. It's more like a master class. Every time you take a public class, it feels like it's a master class. And then at home, we are encouraged, and we encourage people in the katona practice to have a very strong home practice so that you really get to know your body. You really start to build your techniques.

You begin to really soothe yourself. And that's what's so important.

What is a traditional Katonah class like?

And so we wanna know that we are measured we will spend a lot of time measuring up. We'll spend a lot of time doing things like flipping the wrists in on on all four, sometimes flipping the wrist in down dog and playing Chattaranga, we work into the second nature, right, of different poses that we think that we know. Just so that we can start to find a different angle. We can start to find and move currency through the body. We will then usually move into like the Warrior series, the Katona Warrior series, very difficult, very physically challenging.

Oftentimes, will be in one pose for 10, 15 minutes. And many times we come out of it and we're observing somebody else who's in the pose. It's a very communal experience, which I love. The Katona practice is communal. We need that. We need that bond. We need that contact And so in every traditional component class, almost everybody in the class is offering adjustments throughout the class.

So you might be in a katona warrior and you might have somebody adjusting your feet. Somebody adjusting your shoulders. Someone adjusting your arms. Right? And it's it's actually a really incredible experience. We don't end in Shavasana because we can take a nap at home Right? We usually end in a very invigorating pruning on the practice, breathwork practice so that we leave feeling voluminous.

How long is it going to take to get to where I'm going in the practice?

Depends on where you're going. Right? Depends on where you want to go. It is always a journey, right, Naveen Mishan, the founder of Katona, talks about how she was so inspired. And and really, this was a light bulb moment for her. When she saw Neidrosana, right, Buddhist sleep.

And it is an incredibly difficult challenging pose, and it took her I can't remember the number of years that she said it took her. I believe it was 40 years to actually get into that shape. And so the thing about the katona practice is that we don't think of getting somewhere. Right? We think that we move through time. And so as we move through time and we get to manipulate time, right, if we always say if we love something, right? If we love something, we wanna stretch the time out. If we hate something, we can learn.

We can build techniques to make the time go faster. Right? This is what the metaphor of the practice teaches us. And so our home practice is Cornerstone. So in Katona, there is a very big emphasis on the home practice. We create the conditions in our home in a sacred space where we literally are seduced. We try to seduce ourselves to come back consistently every day, whether that's like lighting your favorite incense, putting on a piece of music that you love.

But having a sequence that that is designed for you, that you design that you create, for your body so that you can go into the pose so that you can go into time. Right? We generally hold poses for a breath count. Which is really what's recommended. So breath counts give us a beginning. They give us a middle, and they give us an end.

Which is great. We could hold a pigeon, for example. I could say 50 breath counts. Right? Then I have gone through time. If I'm if I'm miserable, Then I start to practice, okay, how can I manipulate time so this goes a little bit faster?

Right? So the home practice is that safe, sacred space where we're able to work on finding the fits of the body, manipulating time working with metaphor, getting out of like the sensation and the feeling and the idea of muscle and tissue and moving more towards volume and creating space. And once we start to do that in time, We start to get to where we're going.

How do I know what I'm studying with a Katonah teacher?

We love props in Katona Yoga. We think a prop's a scaffolding that elevate us

Are there props used in Katonah?

So we're very prop friendly. So that we are elevated and we're not sinking down. But we're always searching for volume and to be lifted up.

How did Katonah become a style of yoga?

And so it became infused with some of those physical elements, but also some of the philosophical elements and metaphor. But mostly from the taoist tradition, mostly from traditional Chinese medicine, and from geometry. But There is the layer in the sort of general philosophy of sort of the Hindu Hinduistic approach to to the yoga philosophy, the taoist approach, the kundalini approach, that all of these approaches amalgamated into 1.

What is the goal of Katonah Yoga?

Not Troy. So the goal of Katona, in my opinion, is to use these techniques, build technique so that you get to the right place at the right time, and you lead a more joyful life.